Hiking the Traumschleife Saarschleife "Tafeltour" Route

This is the Saarschleife, the stunning horseshoe bend on the River Saar in Mettlach, Germany.

There are a few hiking trails in the Saar-Hunsruck Nature Park. The famous short hike is the Cloef Pfad (Cloef Trail) which is a loop trail that brings you down to the Saar River and up to Baumwipfelpfad (Treetop trail) and the Cloef viewing point (see photo above). It is about 8.4 kilometers and takes on average about 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete. You need to have good stamina for this hike because of the elevation.

The other popular hike is the Traumschleife Saarschleife Tafeltour. Most people call it “Tafeltour”. This trail goes through the Cloef Pfad trail and this is the route we took for the day.

The Tafeltour route is a loop trail of 15.6 kilometers. It takes on average 5 hours to complete the hike, a bit longer of course if you take pitstops. The route passes through the Saarschleifelodge where we are staying, going up to the Cloef viewing point, passing creeks and uneven rocky terrain, crossing the bridge to Mettlach town, going through the forest and passing by the Montclair castle ruin, and finally hopping on the ferry crossing the River Saar. As it is a loop trail, the starting point can vary.

We had a late morning start, which is always the case. I am an early riser, but the Dutchman is not. It was 13:00 when we stood outside by the ferry (Fahre Welles). Since the hike is about 5+ hours and the ferry closes at 17:00, so to make sure we do not miss the crossing, we took the ferry as the starting point. The fare is EUR 2,- per person one-way.

The start of the hike wasn’t all systems go. We missed the ferry by a second and had to wait for 10 minutes. It was also raining. But we were prepared and well equipped. My hiking jacket is waterproof with a hood. Dutchman’s wasn’t but he has a raincoat. I also brought an umbrella, just in case it will pour hard.

In the picture above you can see that we have reached the other side of the river and we are looking toward the lodge. Just around this bend, we will be going into the forest following the route to the Montclair castle ruin. The trail is slightly an uphill climb.

Here I am at the Montclair Castle footbridge. There is an entrance fee to get into the castle museum. There is also a cafe in the courtyard which is accessible to anyone of course. We didn’t go in as we still have a long journey to make.

The castle was built by Arnulf von Walecourt in the late 12th century. In the Middle Ages, the castle was attacked and fell into ruins. What was left of it was restored only sometime in the 1920s.

As we walked we saw beautiful scenery. This is a lovely view of the town of Mettlach. I took this photo right above the river lock.

We continued our journey into the forest. The season is changing and many leaves have already fallen to the ground. Autumn has always fascinated me.

We have arrived in Mettlach town passing by a small terraced cemetery that is very well maintained. As we walked further we passed by the Church of Saint Lutwinus. This is the backside of the church.

We carried on walking to the town center which looked a bit deserted because of the rainy weather. We are truly die-hards to hike in the rain! But it wasn’t that as bad as it wasn’t pouring hard.

We did think of taking a break and having coffee in one of the cafes in town. However, the cafe we liked was full of people having the same idea. So we skipped it and kept going. We brought chocolate drinks in a small tetra pack with us anyway, and some carrots and biscuits too.

This is an almost vintage item. A cigarette vending machine on the street. You will hardly see this in the Netherlands these days.

We crossed the Saar bridge and continued on. Occasionally we catch stunning glimpses of the river scenes below. Autumn is magical.

A cargo boat passing through. Most cargo boats we saw were from the Netherlands. The Saar River is connected to the Moselle River which then flows through to the Rhine River and ends up in the North Sea in the Netherlands.

A lovely surprise in the forest to see a bed of ferns foliage. I love ferns, they remind me of my childhood in the Philippines. Since we moved into the new house 3 years ago, I have adopted 2 large Asplenium ferns which are often called Bird’s Nest ferms. They sit on 2 pedestals in between a dressoir and mirror in the hallway.

So we are now entering a mossy and stony terrain here…

This is the difficult part of the trail because the terrain is elevated, uneven, and rocky. There is moss everywhere clinging to the rocks and some of the rocks are loose. It is an open area with no direct trees and shrubberies on its path that you can grab and hold on to. It can get very slippery aswell. In fact, I slipped and almost fell here. Luckily, my reflex is good and I was able to balance myself quickly.

The Tafeltour route is not for beginners!

We have arrived at the Cloef viewing platform. This platform is quite big but can get very busy as it is accessible from the Baumwipfelpfad (Treetop Trail). Many day-trippers come here as well.

The view from here is jaw-dropping. This is hands down one of the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. In fact, when I google river bend, the Saarscheife comes on top of the searches. This is so far the most stunning of them all. The fall season made it more dramatic.

We are 3/4 of the hike now and this time we are passing little footbridges over creeks and river streams.

Then the weather suddenly changed and the damp forest became a totally different place. It became darker. It looked and felt magical yet mysterious at the same time making it slightly eerie. Like something peculiar is lurking behind those misty shadows or something scary will happen.

The Tafeltour route wasn’t busy at all. There were sections of the trail where we did not meet other hikers. Such as in this forest when the mist struck, we encountered nobody. Sounds spooky, haha!

We got out of the forest and ventured into more open terrain with views of the Saar River below. The rain has stopped which was a relief.

We passed by an Ostrich farm. The Ostriches were curious about us and one of the birds even tried following us, haha.

We are now going down here to the River Saar and we are very nearing where we started this hike. We saw a small waterfall, so pristine and immaculate, and a bird that looks like a crane or heron feeding on the water.

And before we knew it, we were back to where we started. These are the treehouses in the lodge where we stayed at. Our treehouse is located at the back of the left one in the picture.

It was nice to be back in our treehouse. We didn’t expect the hike to be this intensive. Our muscles were burning like hell and we are so tired, we could just roll in bed. We have a few hours to rest and freshen up before our dinner.

Dutchman and I realised that we prefer the more leisure type of hikes, like the one we did in the Moselle River Valley along the spectacular vineyard terraces between Bullay and Zell. We plan to take a similar long weekend trip this year to the Ahr Valley, sometime in the autumn.

I made these late afternoon snacks for us. Mozzarella cheese balls with tomatoes and cucumber and an olive oil and balsamico dressing I made at home and brought with us on this trip. Delicious.

For dinner, we booked at the restaurant nearby, called Fahrhaus Saarschleife literally 350 meters from the lodge. The restaurant sits across the ferry,

I took a picture of the facade of the restaurant just after our hike before we had dinner. I also booked a table. It will be dark when we arrive for dinner here as we booked at 20:00 so I need to take advantage of the daylight. The restaurant has an outdoor cafe terrace and would be perfect during the warmer months.

Here we are after a refreshing shower and needed rest. We both ordered the same thing, typically German, Pork Schnitzel with fries and a side salad. Too bad they did not have vegetable options for fries. You know this is Germany, the traditional food is OK but not that great. There are exceptions of course.

I am still in search of the best Schnitzel in the country. I heard they can be found in the East, in Berlin or Munich. Hmm, I will need to go to Munich for work soon. Now that is a good idea to catch up on a Schnitzel dinner there.